Alastair Reynolds quotes - page 7

I had read in the story-cube that the speed of light was a universal limit; that in a thousand years of experimentation-despite any number of false dawns-no one had ever managed to circumvent it. This had made me feel hemmed in and claustrophobic-it was like being told I must never run or skip down the long, dreary corridors of the house, but must walk instead, with my neck straight and my hands held behind my back. I felt affronted, as if the speed of light was a personal assault on my liberty. Why should I not go as fast as I pleased? Why should I not skip and run? But I could no more explain why the speed limit existed than I could explain why two and two did not make five. It was simply the way things were, one of those rules-like the edict not to visit certain parts of the house-that were not to be questioned. (Alastair Reynolds)
Some people get it. Most people never will. But that's art. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
Loosen up. I need reverence like I need a skateboard. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
I had work to be getting on with. I've always had work to be getting on with. It's what the universe was put there for: to give me things to do. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
This is a kindness, a thing done to another human being for no reason other than compassion. A private, dignified act of basic human decency, which history, being the bastard that it is, will probably neglect to commemorate. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
Crime is an adaptive organism. Squeeze one niche and it moves into another. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
Something that bad, it makes the headlines. They were idiots to bet against physics. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
Venus was a machine for making bad weather. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
I ran an experiment and I got a result. That's more useful to us than fifty years of theorising. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
I'll argue to the death against stupid legislation, but some rules exist for a reason. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
We have been clever, and on occasion we have been foolish. For smart monkeys, we can, when the mood takes us, be exceedingly stupid. But it was cleverness that brought us to this point, and it is only cleverness that will serve us from now on. We have no time for anything else. (Alastair Reynolds)
You'll have to excuse our customs and immigration staff: they preach courtesy and respect while demonstrating exactly the opposite. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
The boundary between art and kitsch was negotiable, even porous. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
What you encountered was an abomination, a military intelligence. It was designed to be insidious and spiteful and inimical to life, and it wasn't smart enough to have a conscience. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
In its purest distillation beauty had always been merciless. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
All of it is physics, though, whether you are studying starlings or quarks. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
There's nothing like a stupid, accidental death to remind you of the supreme futility of everything. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
You owned the world when you were a young man, felt it like it was fashioned to fit your hands. You could do anything with it you wanted to. But the world kept changing, and sooner or later there came a day when it didn't feel like you were the one the world was interested in any more. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
Is he dead?” Irravel asked. "Depends what you mean by dead. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
You can hardly blame them.” "Assuming stupidity is an inherited trait, then no, I can't. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
A splendidly inept thing,” Sylveste said, nodding despite himself. "What?” "The human capacity for grief. It just isn't capable of providing an adequate emotional response once the dead exceed a few dozen in number. And it doesn't just level off-it just gives up, resets itself to zero. Admit it. None of us feel a damn about these people. (Alastair Reynolds)
You look older, son.” "Yes, well, some of us have to get on with the business of being alive in the entropic universe. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
I gather you were all too busy killing each other.” "That's a fairly reductive summary of our history, but I don't suppose it's too far from the truth. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
I don't trust you.” "Of course you don't. I know I wouldn't. And I'm not asking you to. I'm not putting you in a situation in which your trust of me is even remotely relevant. I'm just pointing a gun to your head and giving you orders. View quote
Alastair Reynolds
Is there anyone in Chasm City she hasn't deceived?” "Possibly, somewhere, but only as an extreme theoretical possibility. View quote
Alastair Reynolds